Hard work paying off for Fiction 20 Down

When Wes Anderson left his full-time job in Chicago for Baltimore to pursue his passion for music and join Fiction 20 Down back in 2012, he knew the risks involved.

Fiction 20 Down

“Any aspiring artist or someone that’s pursuing a professional career in entertainment, it’s tough,” said Anderson, a 2005 Anthony Wayne graduate. “There’s a reason why almost nobody makes it because most people can’t handle it, and they quit before they even get a chance.”

While Anderson has certainly experienced a few low moments over the past two years with Fiction 20 Down, he didn’t quit. Now the collective persistence and dedication of he and his band mates to their craft is starting to pay off.

In addition to fulfilling a personal dream of being sponsored by PRS Guitars in 2013, this year Anderson and Fiction 20 Down signed with manager Jeff Rabhan of Trifecta Ltd., gained representation from Stephen Brush and IAA (International Artists Agency) and also received multiple nominations for The Maryland Music Awards.

“It’s a constant mental battle in a sense, and it really just is up to how bad you want it and what you’re willing to do to keep pursuing it,” Anderson said of trying to find stability in the music industry. “It’s really cool to see some things starting to happen and start to get some recognition.”

An international consultant, music executive and artist manager, Rabhan serves as Chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His clientele has included Kelly Clarkson, Jermaine Dupri and Michelle Branch, among others, while artists he’s represented have sold over 100 million records and received more than 12 GRAMMY awards to date.

Fiction 20 Down Halfway There 2014 tour dates.

“We were persistent,” Anderson said of courting Rabhan, a relationship the band started to pursue over a year ago. “We kept doing our thing, and six months or so later we hit him up again and we’re like, ‘Hey. We’ve been growing. We’ve got some new music. Just want to revisit this,’ and then he was just like, ‘Let’s do it.’”

IAA, meanwhile, has a roster that includes hip hop mainstays like Timbaland, Wu-Tang Clan and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

“We kind of just had to build our own following and build our own buzz to the point where we could grab the attention of agencies like that,” Anderson said of Fiction 20 Down. Still independent, the band has built a loyal following of more than 11,000 Facebook fans and nearly 11,000 Twitter followers through national touring, YouTube music videos and constant fan interaction. “Part of the benefit of having a great manager [like Rabhan] is being able to use his network and build new relationships as a result of that, so it’s kind of a combination of that.”

“They’re just as stoked, too,” Anderson said of the band’s Sept. 26 gig, Fiction 20 Down’s first show back in Northwest Ohio since playing at Howard’s Club H in Bowling Green in 2012. “It’s almost sort of like our second hometown because every time we come back it’s just like a big party and everyone’s always stoked.”

Fiction 20 Down is also stoked about the new music it has been working on, a yet-to-be-determined release to follow up the band’s 2013 debut LP “Where’s the Levity?” and March mixtape “The PM Side.”

“We have almost a whole full length of material ready to go,” Anderson said. “We are talking to some labels and things like that, so we want to make sure when we put it out it’s going to have the biggest impact possible.”

With an experienced management team, a loyal fan base that’s more like family and a band that’s more like brothers, that impact is shaping up to be a significant one for Anderson and Fiction 20 Down.

“It’s really cool to see some results starting to come out of all the work we’ve been putting in for years now,” Anderson said. “At times you ask yourself, ‘Is anybody listening? Is this really paying off?’ And then when it rains it pours, you know?”

Fiction 20 Down will perform on Sept. 26 at Martini & Nuzzi’s, located at 6023 Manley Road in Maumee. There will be a $5 cover and the show starts at 7 p.m. For more information, call (419) 865-7967.

Luke James perseveres with “Brooklyn Love”

For singer-songwriter Luke James, the last five years may as well have been a Hollywood script.

A girl and a dream led the Bowling Green native to pack his bags and head for the bright lights of New York City roughly five years ago. And while James’ tale didn’t end the way a predictable Hollywood film may have — him getting the girl and the major label deal — his time in the Big Apple and the path he’s been on since have created a different script with an exciting new beginning.

After returning to Northwest Ohio two years ago, James took the culmination of his experiences and poured them into his debut album, “Brooklyn Love,” released in December. He’s since played the album’s songs live at numerous regional bars and venues and will continue to do so in 2013, including another hometown gig at Howard’s Club H on Jan 18.

“It’s been a great experience so far,” James said. “And I’m just really happy that I finally got an album done, and I’m really happy with how the album turned out.”

James, whose real name is Luke Shaffer, has been playing the guitar for nearly a decade.

Luke James

“I didn’t even listen to music really in high school, and then I had gotten a guitar for Christmas along with my brothers,” the 27-year-old said. “And my younger brother got better than me right away, but I wasn’t, like, motivated to play it at all. And then once I saw him being able to play songs and strum and stuff, I’m like, ‘He’s my younger brother. I’ve got to be better than that!’

“So I picked up the guitar and I started playing it, and I hope have since surpassed him.”

Once James got the itch, music became his vision. Not long after graduating from Bowling Green State University he moved to New York, where he was able to land a job as a waiter while he pursued his dream. However, achieving that dream wasn’t so glamorous.

“All your friends that you just made friends with because you work at a restaurant come and they pay $10 to get in for 45 minutes, and then I only get paid if there’s more than 10 people that come,” James said of playing shows. “And then I just get paid for every person after that. So the most money I think I ever made at a show in New York was, like, $20 or $25.”

In the midst of that grind was a taste of stardom. James has auditioned for “American Idol” three times, twice making it to Hollywood in seasons nine and 10.

That experience, though, is not one he enjoys talking about.

“When you make it so far and you feel good about it, but then they don’t show you on TV at all, it’s kind of like, ‘What was the point of that entire thing?’” James said.

James had hoped “American Idol” would at least show some footage they shot of him at the restaurant he worked so he could get some exposure, but it never aired.

“I didn’t have, like, a baby or one leg or something like that, so I didn’t get the air time that they want to show people,” James said. “They want to show people that have gone through tragedy, and I was just a small-town guy that moved to the big city and liked to sing.”

James didn’t let that experience sour his dream. He recorded the EP “Fresh” while still living in New York City, then made it his goal last year to put out a full-length.

Thanks to Kickstarter, an online fundraising tool for creative projects, and believers in his craft, James was able to raise more than $4,000 to help make “Brooklyn Love” possible.

“There’s been a number of things that have happened over the years that have helped me to continue, like random people I don’t know giving me motivation and encouraging me to just continue on playing music,” James

said. “And it’s always in the lowest times that that happens.”

Recorded at Little Elephant Recording in Rossford with Rob Courtney and Brian Gross-Bias, James said the environment they provided was a big factor in why the record turned out the way it did.

“They’re really cool, really easy to work with,” James said. “I had a blast doing it. We had booked out, like, a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and then I realized I was doing 18 songs and it turned into two-and-a-half months, something like that. So it took a lot longer than I expected, but I’m really, really happy with the final product.”

“Brooklyn Love” is an album that not only displays James’ chops and musical potential as a singer-songwriter in the pop/folk vein, but also showcases his ability to tell a story.

As for his own story, there are still

plenty of empty pages and new chapters to be written.

On Jan. 18, James will headline a show that also features Cape Canyon at Howard’s Club H, 210 N. Main St. in Bowling Green. James will be joined by his band Luke James & The Thieves, featuring Mark Williams (drums) and Rory Taylor (bass). The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5. For more information, visit lukejameslive.com.

The Gazebo plans new album, gig at Howard’s in BG

Despite having a mother who’s a chemist and a father who’s an engineer, Toledo native and Perrysburg High School grad Edward Bean has gone to the beat of his own drum.

“It started off just sort of, you know, like banging on pots and pans in the kitchen,” Bean said of his childhood musicality. “But I guess in a way that’s sort of the start to any music career and my mom let it happen, so thank God for that.”

Bean’s parents were supportive of his need to create, eventually moving him from his kitchen drum kit to piano lessons and buying a piano in their home.

Today, Bean is 19 years old and living in Manhattan, studying classical musical composition on scholarship at New York University. And though Bean is studying music, it’s not solely an academic pursuit.

Together with Ryan Williams and Henryk Kress, Bean is part of the band The Gazebo. Combining elements of experimental, new wave, art rock, pop and jazz, The Gazebo will perform Dec. 21 at Howard’s Club H in Bowling Green.

“You’ve got three different people with three different influences, but there’s a ton of overlap,” Bean said of The Gazebo’s sound. “For instance, I am definitely the more sort of progressive rock or classical-based guy. Henryk takes more of the jazz side of things, and then Ryan enjoys more of the modern alternative rock scene.

“So it’s three different approaches, but it always somehow does blend and it sort of functions [well].”

The Gazebo’s roots go back to Bean’s time in high school when the original trio — which included Bean and Williams — was in the Perrysburg Jazz Band together. The Gazebo got started during the summer of 2008, with Kress joining in 2010.

Gazebo, from left, Henryk Kress, Ryan Williams and Edward Bean.

The band’s latest lineup is a studious bunch. Kress is studying both classical and jazz guitar at University of Toledo, while Williams is studying music education at BGSU and is also active within the percussion department, according to Bean. Together, the trio released the full-length “Lawn Structures” in 2010 and “(T)here” EP in 2012.

“We’re all multi-instrumentalists,” Bean said. “So on our recordings, you hear, like, 12-20 instruments, but most of them are being performed by one of the three of us.”

Though its core is Bean on vocals, Williams on drums and Kress on guitar, The Gazebo does not have a stripped-down sound.

On the band’s recordings thus far, Bean has also tackled bass, keys, ukulele, trombone and piano.

“He plays it like it’s an actual classical instrument, which is — I think — fantastic,” Bean said of Williams’ drumming style. “It gives us a looser sound, and that’s been a critique we’ve often had, is that it’s not really like [a] driving rock kind of sound.

“But at the same time, we enjoy the music we make. And since we all have either classical or jazz training, it sort of brings a nuance to our approach.”

Because all its members are in school, The Gazebo also has a unique recording approach. The band exchanges ideas and music online while at school, then splits the actual recording of its music between a couple of different spots in Northwest Ohio when all the members are together.

Lately, The Gazebo has been busy working on its forthcoming double album, a concept record that started with the song “Flight to Babylon” off “Lawn Structures.”

The storyline for the double-album, “The Living Sun,” is about a character who starts in California, moves through Joshua Tree Forest and makes his way east.

The concept is inspired by the band members’ respective travels and primarily is about moving forward in life.

“Obviously, we write from our perspectives and experiences, but it is supposed to be a universal message, which is one of just sort of ‘Who am I?’” Bean said. “It’s about identity and just moving to new places.”

The first part of “The Living Sun,” “The Warming Sun,” is scheduled to be released in January.

Until then, The Gazebo is eager to get back together in Northwest Ohio to finish recording and perform at Howard’s.

“We’re playing [with] a six-person set,” Bean said of the show. “It should be a lot of fun and really good.”

On Dec. 21, The Gazebo will perform at Howard’s, 210 N. Main St. in Bowling Green. The Gazebo’s performance will also include Connor Leupp (vocals, keyboard, percussion), Vince Chiaverini (bass) and Tyler Fowler (tenor saxophone).

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In Concert

The Half Hearts to play gigs at OT, Howard’s Club H

“We all have acting backgrounds, so we get really theatrical. It’s a lot of jumping around. We’ve been compared to a cabaret,” said singer-guitarist Flip Arkulary. “Sometimes there are costumes involved. It’s not unusual to see a bearded lady at one of our concerts.”

“We get compared to everybody from Fleetwood Mac to the Pixies and I’ve heard the B-52s. It’s a mix for sure,” said Arkulary, who has been called Flip since the day he was born thanks to the in-utero gymnastics he used to right himself when he was expected to be born breech.

The Half Hearts’ sophomore release, “Uptown Sounds,” set for release May 10 on Apter Records, chronicles the band members’ lives in Minneapolis during the past two years. The title refers to an artsy section of town where a couple of the members live.

“If I could make one album in my entire life, this would be it,” Arkulary said. “We all sing on it and we all wrote the songs. Caitie and I wrote most, but all of us really put our stamp on it. It’s an ode to the city and how we all came together.”

The group’s first album, “After the Flood,” covered Arkulary’s journey as he graduated from the University of Iowa and left to work on Obama’s presidential campaign as his college town was being ravaged by a flood.

“I was saying goodbye to all I knew as a flood was washing away my city,” Arkulary said. “It was a good metaphor for coming into adulthood for me — a physical and metaphorical flood.”

After the campaign, Arkulary moved to Minneapolis, where he ran into Cox, a childhood friend from Duluth, Minn., and Collins, an acquaintance from college.

“Caitie and I both majored in music. She’s an opera singer and me in classical composition. When those things didn’t work out for us, we became rock singers and songwriters,” Arkulary said.

Miller replaced the group’s previous drummer earlier this year.

“We had a drummer quit halfway through the album. It sparked a lot of fights,” he said. “There were a couple days we were plotting each other’s deaths. Like Fleetwood Mac actually.”

With Minneapolis so far from the next major city, its indie music scene has developed its own unique sound, Arkulary said.

“Minneapolis is really insular,” Arkulary said. “We wanted to create a dialogue about what that means. Where do we fit in as a band? Are we part of this insular sound or are we part of something different on top of that? I could go through layers and layers of that. It’s intellectual masturbation.”

Arkulary hopes people come to the show with an open mind.

“What we’re selling is not your typical indie rock experience,” he said. “We get really into our act. We just have a lot of passion. I’m really lucky to work with the three most passionate people I know. I want people to walk away with a catharsis. I want them to show up with an open mind and leave feeling that they’ve been spiritually satisfied.”

The Half Hearts will play Howard’s Club H, 210 N. Main St., Bowling Green, at 8 p.m. May 12 and Ottawa Tavern, 1817 Adams St., with The Matt Truman Ego Trip on May 13.

McGInnis: Trainwreck to hit Toledo and BG

For Kyle Gass, the road to being a rock star was, in some ways, also the path of least resistance.

Growing up in California, he was a fan of many of the biggest names in popular music — not only the British rock icons like the Beatles, Stones, The Who and Zeppelin, but classic American acts like Crosby, Stills and Nash. But when he started playing himself, he realized that the kind of music he loved was also the kind that came easiest to him.

Trainwreck

“I noticed that it wasn’t THAT hard to play rock. I started playing classical and jazz, and never really excelled. But, I always enjoyed listening to rock and pop. So, I started playing those, and it was easier, and more fun.”

For nearly two decades, Gass has been having fun on stage, performing with an eye on capturing both the hard rock edge of the bands he loved and the humor of a natural comedian. He is best known for his work with childhood friend Jack Black in rock comedy group Tenacious D.

Gass is currently on tour with his own group, Trainwreck, which is “in the Tenacious D family,” as three of its members play in both groups. The band will appear at Frankie’s on September 23, and at Howard’s Club H in Bowling Green on September 24.

The foundation for Trainwreck, Gass said in an interview, began over 13 years ago.

“Even playing in Tenacious D, I always wanted to incorporate music and comedy. Tenacious D did really well pretty quickly. And I always liked gigging live a lot, and just felt like I had the time. Jack was starting to do a lot more movies, and I had some more time on my hands, and I thought it’d be fun to start another enterprise.”

With a new enterprise came new personas — each member of the band has developed Trainwreck alter ego to play in concert, though Gass (who plays “Klip Calhoun”) downplays how seriously even the members of the group take these alternate roles.

“Jason Reed, who plays Darryl Lee Donald, I wanted him to be kind of a lead guy, singer, very entertaining fellow. And I thought it would be just kinda more freeing and liberating if you could sort of do it all in your character. And D was doing so well, that I just wanted to kinda break away from that a little bit. So, I thought going with characters would help with that.

“The character is pretty thin. It’s not like we’re trying to be like Andy Kaufman or something,” Gass said. “At the end of the day, it’s just us playing these cartoon characters. It’s mostly music, and we have some fun with the banter, but it’s pretty easygoing. It feels more like us than like we were in character. The music’s kinda the main thing.”

What kind of music Trainwreck performs has evolved over time, however. The sound of the band has grown as the group matured, Gass said.

“It’s evolved quite a bit. I wanted it to be really good, musically. And I think it’s evolved from that. It started as a duo, but that was just for one gig. And then we added drums, kinda copping the minimalist, White Stripes vibe, just guitar and drums. But when we added electric guitar and base, then it really just became more of a traditional band thing, which I like.

“We added keyboards for a while, but I felt that really wasn’t the right vibe. It needed to be kinda more hillbilly guitar, classic rock.”

That sound has been captured on three different album releases so far — one live recording and two studio albums, the most recent of which, “The Wreckoning,” was released last year. Gass himself thought of one of the most unique collectables that will be available to Trainwreck’s fans in Toledo and BG.

“This tour, I thought, ‘You know, it’d be fun to put it out on vinyl.’ So, we ordered a limited run of vinyl and are selling that on tour.”

And really, the tour is what it’s all about for Trainwreck. Gass said that there’s no greater feeling for a musician than being in front of a great crowd.

“It’s kinda the whole reason to do it. Honestly, that’s like everything. You’re performing so you can, like, have a connection with the audience. And when it’s really packed and everything is going well, and everyone is having a good time, it’s a real high.”

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Analog Revolution plans two shows in Bowling Green

Analog Revolution is working its way up the local music scene with a genre-defying sound that has a little something for everyone.

The Bowling Green band will play two shows in July at Howard’s Club H in downtown Bowling Green.

The quartet has been playing together for almost a year, cultivating its sound and live show. The band consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist TheMarn, lead guitarist Mike DuBose, bassist Kelli Kling, and drummer Macyn Elliot.

Analog Revolution

According to Kling, the band started as a personal project of TheMarn and DuBose. The two had just left another group and wanted to create a fresh sound. They recruited Elliot and Kling to complete the ensemble. Each member brought different experiences and influences to the songwriting process.

“When people ask me to describe our sound, I usually just say ‘rock’,” Kling said. “But it’s actually very diverse.”

Traces of industrial rock, pop, punk, hair metal and more can be heard in the band’s original material. Acts such as AC/DC, Tom Waits, The White Stripes and others audibly inform the band’s sound. Kling cited Van Halen as a personal influence.

“They’re a band that likes to have fun, but they’re also good musicians,” Kling said. “That’s something that I think we definitely strive for as well.”

This blended style of music has garnered the band increasing success in the Bowling Green music scene.

“We’ve had a good turnout and a good reception pretty much every show,” Kling said. “I think everyone in the area is receptive and supportive of local bands.”

The band has played several shows in Bowling Green, but plans on playing at Toledo venues soon. It is currently working on an album, Kling said, which will hopefully lead to more shows.

“We would definitely like [the band] to grow, and to travel to other cities and make CDs,” Kling said.

Analog Revolution will play at 10 p.m. July 8 at Howard’s Club H with Wards of the Mayor and Hot Love. Admission is $3.

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